Yes! Free stuff! Who doesn't like that? And when the free stuff helps you in your faith walk -- even better! Now, I'm not talking about those free wristbands everyone has these days or even free air fresheners for your car so you can remember a cool conference for a week or two. I'm talking about faith-building resources valued at $284 -- and I want to give them to you for FREE! See the entire list of FREE stuff with a click here.Here's why: I think it will help your faith grow … [Read more...]

As I pondered a couple of seemingly unrelated things -- Establishment Republicans and Seeker-friendly Church Leaders -- I stumbled onto a similarity between the two -- a lack of moral courage. And a reason why.Establishment Republicans try to be liked by those they deem to be in the middle. They crave the acceptance of supposed Independents who they think are seeking likable, lovable politicians who just want to get along with everyone.They think that these Independent voters want … [Read more...]

I once actually stood in church and sang the words, "Blah, Blah, Blah." And no one could tell the difference. No one could hear anything anyways because the music was so loud. Just being authentic here, but with the lyrics as simplistic as they were, I couldn't even tell the difference.I have to wonder if God noticed.As some of you know from my post Why I've Stopped Singing in Your Church, I struggle to reconcile much of what passes for modern worship music with biblical passages … [Read more...]

Sometimes it's not the mind-blowing miracles of Jesus that give us pause, awesome though they may be. Sometimes it's what Jesus said while performing the mighty work that leaves us even more stunned. Just before raising her brother, Lazarus, from the dead, Jesus reminded Martha, “If you believe, you will see God’s glory” (John 11:40). Implied in his statement is that the opposite is equally true: if you don’t believe, you will not see God’s glory.When we fail to believe, it’s not just that w … [Read more...]

Pastors are perfect people, right? Church leaders don't sin do they?Some of you laughed when you read that. Especially you pastors and church leaders who know all too well how human you are.But others of you immediately thought of painful situations caused by a church leader's sin. You remembered the destruction caused by it and -- what makes it worse -- the frustration you felt when no one seemed willing to do anything about it.A recent comment by a reader identified as Dan Graves … [Read more...]

Do you want your life to matter? I do. I suspect you do too.But it won’t happen by accident. Living a story worth telling, one that gets talked about not only in this temporary life but the lasting life to come, requires intentional effort.And it’s not easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. But comfort can never achieve what courage dares to try. [Tweet this!]We say we want adventure, but we run from risk. We say we want a faith that moves mountains, but we cower inside our chur … [Read more...]

Based on interest in my post "Why I've Stopped Singing in Your Church," I thought FaithWalkers readers might enjoy this guest post from my friend Rich Birch. Rich serves as the Operations Pastor at Liquid Church, and blogs at unSeminary.com about stuff you wish they taught you in seminary. You can follow Rich him on Twitter and Facebook. The first church I served at was in the middle of a worship war when I started there. It was like a cold war with a lot of passive-aggressive leadership on bot … [Read more...]

Do you know what God wants you to do next? Do you want to?Are you trying to discover God’s will for your life yet fearing you may just make a mess of everything?Join the club.I chatted with a bright college-aged young man recently about life direction and what God may have in mind for his life. Our talk reminded me of the critical decisions that each of us must make at that stage of life, decisions that will go a long way in determining how our life story gets written.It also … [Read more...]